All Those Times Before
by hannnarivers
Summary: Caleb guessed he'd always known that he and Hanna would find their way back to each other, because he'd never let any one part of her slip from his mind; the things that made her happy, her deepest and darkest fears, and how to make her feel alive again when the memories that she tried so hard to forget came back to haunt her. Plotless drabble. 7B Haleb. Oneshot.


**So essentially, this oneshot is just me being really soppy for a really, really long time. Like, I'm pretty sure that this is the longest thing I've ever written. Oops.**

 **As plotless as it may be, it was actually very fun to write – fluffy Haleb is my weakness, and this certainly falls under that category.**

 **Enjoy.**

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All Those Times Before

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At first Caleb thought that he was imaging it, that the squirming and the sobs were a figment of his imagination, just an all-too-vivid component of his dream. But after five minutes, when the sobs had turned to screams and the squirming had turned to shaking, he realised that it wasn't in his head at all – it was coming from the girl wrapped up protectively in his arms.

He should have been expecting this, really; Hanna's nightmares had never truly diminished during the time in which they were living together in New York, and always became far more intense after she experienced something stressful, or something that reminded her of being in the dollhouse. The experience of being kidnapped and tortured in a shed less than a month ago, Caleb figured, was bound to come under that category.

"Han baby, shhh," He soothed, opening his eyes only to be greeted by the sight of Hanna writhing around against him, her face scrunched up and her chest rising and falling rapidly as she struggled to breathe.

Upon hearing his words, still asleep, Hanna swallowed before attempting to speak with the smallest voice that he had ever heard her use – one that, by the sounds of it, she could barely even muster, "Caleb, I-"

"It's ok, I'm here." He stroked her side with one hand and strands of her slightly damp hair back from her face with the other, hoping to bring her to a state of complete consciousness gradually. Waking her up abruptly would only serve to upset her even more, but he couldn't bear to think back to the strangled look of pain on her face on the one occasion that he had decided that it might have been better to let her nightmare go on, to let her break out of it herself. No, that definitely wasn't an option that he was ever going to try again.

He had come to learn all of this over the time that they spent together in New York and, knowing somewhere in his heart that one day they would be together again, had never let a single detail slip from his mind.

This time, though, rousing Hanna from her nightmare was proving to be particularly difficult.

"You have to- you have to go," She mumbled between desperate breaths, "They'll hurt you Caleb." Her hands moved over his torso rapidly in an attempt to convince herself that he was still there, that she hadn't lost him, that she would never lose him again.

Caleb gripped her hands in his, running his thumbs over the backs of them, "Han baby it's just a dream. It's ok I promise, we're safe here. You can wake up." Her soft whimpers were breaking his heart.

He thought he'd gotten through to her for a second before a huge sob erupted from her body and a fresh batch of tears began streaming down her cheeks, "No- it's- it's- it's not- Ca-"

"Hanna wake up baby, please you need to breathe," He desperately tried, beginning to get worried at this point; the amount of distress that she was under couldn't have been healthy. "Open your eyes Han, I'm here."

"Caleb?" She whimpered in response, reaching one of her hands up to fumble around until she could feel his face beneath her fingers. When her thumb grazed over the short stubble on his jaw, her eyes opened slowly and gazed up into his, before darting around his face as if she was seeing him for the very first time. They were a blue so bright that Caleb feared they would blind him, a colour that they only adopted on the occasions when she had been crying for hours on end. How long had she been having this nightmare before he had even noticed? How many times over the last few weeks had she had a nightmare that hadn't woken him up, one that she had had to suffer through on her own?

"Hey, look at me, I'm here ok?" He assured her, one of his hands coming to rest atop of hers on his jaw, whilst the other began to rub up and down her trembling arm, "I'm here." His voice cracked a little when he spoke and his eyes filled with tears as he registered the pain behind his girlfriend's piercing eyes. He would never, could never, be ok with seeing her like this. But he would do it a million times over, as long as he knew that his presence was what she wanted, that it made her feel even a little bit safer.

"But you were just," Hanna tried, confusion clouding over the sheen of tears in her eyes as she attempted to figure out the reality of the situation, "You were-" Her sentence was cut short when she broke down in tears once again, throwing her arms around Caleb and burying her head in his chest.

"Shhhh, don't cry," He murmured against the top of her head, knowing that his words were most likely futile, "It was just a nightmare ok, I promise." His warm hands weaved their way through her long hair over and over again, and after a while, he felt her breathing start to become more regular.

"It felt so, it was so real," She whimpered, clearly still upset.

Caleb sighed, "I know, I know it did baby."

Just as he began to think that her tears may have ceased for good, another sob wracked Hanna's body and she cried out into his chest, her arms shaking as they clung onto his back in desperation.

"Come on, hey," He attempted to reassure her one last time, "This feeling is gonna go away, the dream wasn't real Han, I promise."

"Mhm," She mumbled in response, breathing heavily.

Caleb could feel her tears rolling down from her cheeks to the skin of his torso, warm and damp against his skin. "Just put your hand on my chest like this and try to copy my breathing ok?" He instructed gently, pulling her hand up to the top of his body and placing it over his heart. "Breathe in time with me Han."

Putting every ounce of effort that she could muster into following his instructions, Hanna scrunched her eyes closed and focused entirely on her breathing, following the slow, rhythmic patterns of Caleb's chest. This was something that he always did for her when she was panicking – it was one of the only techniques that helped to calm her down, and whether this was due to the slowed breathing itself or just the knowledge that Caleb with right there with her, she couldn't be more thankful.

"There you go, there you go," He soothed, pressing a kiss to the top of her head whilst his fingers drew circular patterns on her waist. Hanna's breathing was evening out slowly, and soon enough her sobs had reduced to a weak whimper every ten seconds or so. "Shhh, it's ok, I love you." His arms tightened around her once he was sure she was breathing properly again; he never felt more protective over her than he did in situations like these.

She nuzzled her head against his chest in an attempt to get even closer to him. "I'm so sorry," She sniffled, her voice muffled due to the fact that her lips were pressed to his skin, which was warm and slightly dampened as a result of her tears.

"Hey, I thought we agreed that you never had to say sorry about things like this?" Caleb reminded her, his voice full of compassion, "It's not your fault Han."

"That was- that was years ago, that you said that," She took a deep breath in as she attempted to regain her composure, finally looking up at Caleb again, "We've only been back together for a few weeks and I'm already ruining your-"

"You're not ruining anything, ok?" He interrupted her as soon as he heard her begin her usual run of self-deprecation, "And nothing's changed over the last few years, I still love you just as much, I still want to be here for you day in and day out, and your PTSD still isn't your fault." Caleb knew each and every one of her fears surrounding his feelings towards her, and would do anything in his power to reassure her that they were unjustified, that no matter what, his opinion of her could not be changed. She was everything to him, and she always would be. "I'm afraid you're kinda stuck with me."

Upon hearing his words, Hanna allowed herself a small smile, which Caleb gladly reciprocated. "Got it?" He checked, his eyes scanning over her reddened face before connecting with hers.

She nodded in response, her smile getting a little wider. "Got it."

Leaning into one another, their lips connected in a gentle, shaky kiss, that was immediately followed by a longer, firmer one once Caleb had brought his hand up to cradle the back of Hanna's head.

"I love you too by the way," She murmured against his lips once they had broken apart, "So much." Caleb bit his lip to suppress a wide grin as she snuggled back into his chest. "What time is it?" She enquired, yawning.

"It's three-forty am."

"Ugh, I'm so sorry," She grumbled, voice full of guilt, and annoyance at herself.

"Hey now, what did we agree?" Caleb asked, gently. He tilted her chin up with his index finger in the hopes that his kind eyes would be able to reassure her doubtful ones, "Don't be sorry, it just means that I get to talk to you for longer today, which is never a bad thing."

"I wouldn't exactly call what just happened talking," She chuckled in response, ducking her head back down and trailing her fingers gently over his bare chest – the repetitive motion felt soothing to the both of them.

"No, it wasn't," He confirmed, pressing his lips against the top of her head, "But we can talk now." His hand came down to join with hers on his chest, their fingers slowly lacing together.

"You know I'm really happy you said that, because I don't think I can go back to sleep now," She admitted, smiling against him.

Caleb had known this – it was why he had suggested staying up in the first place. He had seen and despised the twisted look on her face every time she had tried, and failed, to sleep again after one of her night terrors, one of her panic attacks that could last for long enough to exhaust her for the entirety of the following day. The two of them always ended up staying awake the whole night anyway, shifting around in each others arms and pretending to be asleep so as not to 'wake' the other. Talking would be a much better alternative, especially now, when they had so much to catch up on and so much to look forward to.

A few moments passed before Hanna broke their comfortable silence. "What are you thinking about?" She enquired, gazing up at him.

"Us," He smirked, pushing her now slightly tangled hair back from her face with one hand.

Hanna couldn't help but smile back at him, "Us?"

"Yeah, us."

"What about us?" She asked in response, genuinely interested now. She shuffled in his arms in order to get more comfortable, swinging one leg over his body to tangle with his and laying her head back on his chest, wrapping one arm snugly around his torso.

Caleb sighed dramatically, and then smirked. "Just stuff."

Hanna pursed her lips as she raised her eyebrows, "Stuff like what?"

"New York," He admitted before clearing his throat, "When we were living together."

A fond smile spread across Hanna's face. "Those were the best two years of my life, you know that?" She whispered, telling him what he already knew as she stroked his jawline gently with the tips of her fingers.

"Mine too," He confirmed, kissing her thumb as it moved from his jaw to trace across his bottom lip. Growing up, Caleb had never imagined that he would be as happy as he was during that time; he had never felt luckier than he did then, getting to spend every single day and every single night with the person that he loved the most in the world. The only downside was that it hurt more than anything else in the world when he lost it all.

"We could have had three more of those years if it wasn't for me," Hanna mumbled sadly, as if she could hear what he was thinking. She always seemed to place the blame on herself, which Caleb hated more than anything – he felt that he was just as responsible for their break up as she was, and Hanna definitely didn't need any additional feelings of guilt floating around in her mind on top of those that she was already burdened with.

"It wasn't your fault Han, stop blaming yourself," He assured her, his voice firm.

"If I hadn't have walked out-"

"I walked out too, we're both to blame," Caleb interrupted, not wanting her to work herself up all over again. He could tell that she was getting upset when he received nothing in response, and so he pressed a gentle kiss against the tip of her nose before sighing, "It was stupid and it shouldn't have happened and I'll regret it for as long as I live, but we're together now and that's all that matters, right?"

"Right," She agreed, nodding and pressing her lips into a tight smile.

Caleb shook his head, knowing that she didn't really believe him at all. He knew that there was a small part of her that would always blame herself, just as there was a small part of him that would always think that it was all his fault. He placed a gentle peck against her lips in an attempt to get her to loosen up a little; it worked, and Hanna's lips turned from a straight line into a soft pout as they came into contact with his.

"I just keep thinking about how different things could be," She shrugged, breaking their kiss, "I mean, if we'd have stayed together."

Caleb's eyebrows knotted together, "Different how?"

Hanna turned over so that she was facing the ceiling, her head on Caleb's chest as she absentmindedly began to play with his fingers. "We could be engaged right now, maybe even married," She mumbled, more to herself than to him.

Caleb heard her, though, and couldn't help but smile at the thought of marrying Hanna. He'd imagined, dreamt about proposing to her numerous times whilst they were living together in New York; on one occasion he'd even seen a ring in a shop that he could imagine her wearing so vividly that he'd almost bought it. He'd been sure almost since the day that he met her that she was the one person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Knowing that it would make her smile, he leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Well, we both know that's going to happen anyway."

He felt Hanna giggle against him before she craned her neck up to look up at him, her sore, still slightly red eyes gleaming with excitement. "That's the response I was looking for," She bit her lip for a moment, clearly mulling something over, "What about babies?"

Caleb's smile grew at her words, "Babies?"

Delaying her response, Hanna once again changed her position on the bed, this time flopping over onto Caleb so that she was laying flat on top of him, their chests pressed firmly against one another. "Babies," She confirmed, nodding once, her bottom lip between her teeth in a weak attempt to suppress her grin.

Caleb chuckled as he nuzzled his nose against hers, "Comfortable now?"

"Mhmmm," She murmured in response, wrapping her arms around his neck, playing with the short strands of dark hair at the back of his head.

His hands moved to subtle dip at the bottom of her back, slowly stroking up and down underneath the material of the shirt that she was wearing – his shirt for that matter. "So where were we?" He asked, slightly distracted by the feeling of her soft, warm skin under his fingertips.

"Babies."

"Right…" He nodded, raising his eyebrows, "You've thought about that?"

Hanna pressed her lips together as a gentle blush crept upon her cheeks, "Maybe." She pushed the tip of her nose against his in an attempt to stop him from noticing the now bright shade of red that was tinging her skin, but Caleb had already registered it, and simply pressed a probing kiss to her lips in response. He thought it was adorable that she'd thought about having babies… having babies with _him_.

Sensing that she had even more interest in the topic than she was letting on, he pushed his lips against the shell of her ear, pressing a kiss there before he whispered, "Tell me more."

He felt Hanna's cheek move up against his and could tell that she was smiling even wider than before, "I don't know, I don't really… have a plan," She answered honestly as he brought his face back up so that he could look into her eyes again, "I just know that I want them. With you."

"Well that's lucky, because I kinda want to have them with you too," He murmured, his eyes conveying every emotion of love and excitement and hope that he was feeling in that moment, "One day."

Hanna practically beamed at his words; she rested her forehead against his as his fingers absentmindedly ran up and down her sides, tickling her slightly, but not quite enough to make her laugh.

"How many?" He questioned, enjoying how this conversation seemed to be making his girlfriend so happy; they were both giggling quietly against one another by this point, fully consumed by the little fantasy world that they were creating inside their minds.

Hanna pretended to think for a second before she answered, though she already knew exactly what she was going to say. Ever since she and Caleb had gotten together almost seven years ago, she had begun to imagine a future with him, and every time she pictured the two of them laying in bed with their babies on a Sunday morning, she always imagined exactly the same thing. "Two," She confirmed, "One boy and one girl, so we can have one that looks like each of us."

Caleb laughed in response, capturing her lips with his as he started a short, gentle kiss. "Hmm, I like that sound of that," He hummed, his mouth still hovering beneath hers.

Just as he was about to connect their lips once again, Hanna broke the moment with a flurry of worried words. "Are we crazy talking about babies after being back together for less than a month?"

Caleb took a deep breath in, sliding a hand up her back over her shirt until he could play with a few strands of her long, blonde hair. "I don't think so, it feels to me like we've never been apart," He started, "All I know is that I've only ever imagined my future with one girl, that I've been in love with her for seven years, and that she's laying on top of me in one of my shirts and nothing else right now." Hanna almost always wore an item of his clothing to bed at this point – whether it was one of his shirts or a pair of his boxers, it had kind of become a tradition of theirs.

She grinned at his words, "Well I suppose when you put it that way."

Caleb leant up to start another kiss, which Hanna happily returned. Hearing him say these things meant more to her than she could ever describe – not so long ago she had been worried that he had found something with Spencer to replace what they had once had, and the thought made her feel sick to her stomach. She could never imagine feeling that way about anyone but him.

After a minute or so, she pulled away from the kiss in order to look into his eyes as she spoke, "I've been in love with you for that long too, by the way."

"What?" Caleb asked confusedly, his brain a little mushy after their kiss.

"Seven years," Hanna reminded him, "I've been in love with you for seven years, and I've never been in love with anybody else."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Not even-"

"No, I was never in love with him," Hanna cut him off, shaking her head from one side to the other, "Jordan was just… convenient. I mean, I loved him, sure, but like a friend. Like a really, really good friend. What I felt for him was so completely different to being in love," Her voice turned quiet all of a sudden, "Something I've only ever felt with one person."

Caleb smiled warmly, "And who would that be?" He murmured against her lips, full well knowing what her answer would be.

"Well let's see," She started, deciding to play along, "He's really good looking, he's crazy smart when it comes to computer stuff, and I'm pretty sure he would do anything for me. Oh, and he's laying underneath me in his boxers right now."

"You mean the guy with his hands on your ass?" He smirked up at her, before sliding his hands down her back to her thighs and then back up to rest over her ass, where he gave her naked butt a gentle squeeze.

Hanna laughed against him, burying her head into his neck. "Yeah, that one," She giggled, craning her neck back up to take in the image of his mischievous grin, one that she knew would be there before she had even looked.

Caleb leaned up so that their faces were almost touching, and traced the length of her bottom lip with his tongue, his hand cupping the back of her head. Just as Hanna was about to grant him entrance to her mouth, she spoke against his lips, interrupting the moment completely once again. "You know what else I hear he's great at?"

Caleb slumped his head back down onto the pillow in mock disappointment, though he couldn't help but smirk at the excited gleam in her eyes. He cocked his head as he awaited her response.

"Making food."

He rolled his eyes at that one. "Oh really?" He teased, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning back onto them.

"Yeah, especially for his really, really hungry girlfriend," Hanna nodded, sticking out her bottom lip and raising her eyebrows, "In fact, I think I'd like to test that theory out right now, you know, just to see if he really is any good at it."

"Didn't you already eat dinner?" He asked, suddenly concerned that she hadn't been taking care of herself properly. One of his hands slid up to her waist as he reached his thumb around to stroke the flat expanse of her stomach, his brow furrowed in worry.

"No," She huffed, sliding off of him and propping her head up on her elbow as he sat up against the headboard, "I didn't have time, I had to take Spence over to that old man's house to see-"

Caleb sighed, interrupting her explanation, "So you didn't even get to eat because of all this Uber A crap?"

Hanna pursed her lips together at Caleb's slightly angered tone; he sighed, closing his eyes for a second before he reached out to cup her cheek in his hand. "What do you want?" He asked, his voice much gentler now.

"Pizza," She smirked, knowing all the long that she would eventually break him.

"You want pizza at four am?" He laughed gently, quirking an eyebrow at her response.

"Maybe not," Her nose scrunched up as she tried to think of a better alternative, "Do we have any chocolate?" She enquired, her voice hopeful.

Caleb chuckled, "See that's why we're such a good match, we both always go for the healthy option," He joked. As much as they tried, he and Hanna had never had the healthiest of diets – there was one particular week when they had lived in New York that he distinctly remembered them ordering pizza five times in one week.

Hanna rolled her eyes as she laughed along with him, "Ok fine, how about we have some fruit with it."

"Strawberries good?"

Hanna nodded eagerly as Caleb got up from the bed, pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead before he began walking towards the door. "Oh, and melt the chocolate," She added excitedly as the idea popped into her head.

"Got it," Caleb nodded with a smile, closing the bedroom door behind him. They had moved into an apartment – their apartment, only a week ago, but to Hanna it felt like home already. All she needed was Caleb to feel like she belonged.

Five minutes later, just as Hanna was beginning to get bored of scrolling through her Instagram feed, Caleb returned with a tray full of strawberries, accompanied a huge pot of melted chocolate, and two big steaming glasses of hot chocolate – with whipped cream, of course.

"I made you a drink too," He smiled, "Hot chocolate still your favourite?"

"Always," She looked up and gave him a grateful smile as he placed the tray on her lap before resuming his place next to her in bed. "Thank you so much."

"No problem," He replied genuinely, lifting a strawberry from the tray and dipping it in the chocolate before he held it to her lips, "Here."

"You don't need to feed me," She chuckled, rolling her eyes, although she didn't hesitate to bite the strawberry off of the stalk in one go as it neared her mouth. Caleb placed the green leaves back onto the tray as she threw her head back against the headboard dramatically, "So good," She sighed, "I'm gonna eat this whole tray in like five minutes by the way," She mumbled, picking another strawberry up for herself.

"Good," Caleb swallowed as he bought his mug away from his face after taking a long sip of hot chocolate, "You need it."

"You sound like my mom," Hanna laughed, shaking her head, "Though she'd be telling me to have a salad instead of this." She took gulp of her drink before setting it back down beside the bowl of melted chocolate on the tray.

Caleb sat and watched as Hanna devoured virtually the whole spread of food – there was only two strawberries left when he decided to reach out and take one for himself.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hanna asked as she raised her eyebrows at him, looking at the strawberry in his hand in disgust.

"Uh, eating a strawberry?" He laughed in response – he knew how much Hanna despised sharing her food, but sometimes didn't realise the extent of her hatred. Or maybe he did, and he just really loved that pout that she put on when he was teasing her; he couldn't quite decide.

"My strawberry," She retorted, mild-annoyance evident in her voice.

"You still have one right there," He reassured her, nodding down to the one remaining strawberry on the tray as he dipped the one that he was holding in the melted chocolate.

Hanna quickly snatched the last strawberry on the tray away and rammed it into her mouth, virtually swallowing it in one bite, "Now I don't," She smirked, "And you wouldn't dare eat my last strawberry, would you?" She teased, moving the tray over to rest on her night table.

"Hmmmm," Caleb mused, placing his hot chocolate down on the floor next to their bed as Hanna shuffled closer to him, the strawberry that she was so desperate to take possession of in her line of sight, "Maybe I would."

He began moving the piece of fruit closer and closer to his mouth, but before he could come anywhere close to eating it, Hanna had jumped up from the bed and was straddling him. She wasted no time in grabbing the strawberry from his hands and shoving it into her own mouth, a big drop of gooey, melted chocolate dripping down onto her neck and one side of her collar bone – that was exposed due to the fact that Caleb's oversized shirt had completely fallen off of one of her shoulders – in the process.

"Now look what you did," She pouted, "I'm all chocolate-y."

Caleb couldn't help but smile at the adorable, sad-puppy expression on his girlfriend's face in that moment – it made him want to cup her cheeks in his hands and kiss her silly. "What I did?" He laughed in amusement, "I think that it might have been your fault."

"It wouldn't have happened if you'd have just let me have the last strawberry," She moaned, looking down at the brown-coloured stain next to her shoulder.

Caleb chuckled as he moved his face closer to her until his lips were hovering right over hers, "Well I guess I'll just help you clean it up as my way of saying sorry." He kissed his way down from her lips to her chin and then to her neck, nipping and licking at the soft, pale skin there as he removed all traces of the dessert. His lips eventually moved down to the last bit of chocolate on her collar bone, where he dragged her shirt down to gain access and sucked for a little longer than he should have, before soothing over the skin with his tongue.

Hanna's head was thrown back in sheer contentment as she hummed to herself. "That's gonna leave a mark you know," She warned, though she really couldn't have cared less at the time.

Caleb smirked as he moved back up and nudged her nose with his, prompting Hanna to open her eyes. "Payback for not letting me eat that strawberry," He joked.

"Maybe I won't let you eat any of my food ever again," She laughed, "I kinda enjoyed the payback."

"Do you ever let me eat any of your food anyway?" He asked, one eyebrow raised; the answer was no, and they both knew it.

"For that you can give me payback on the other side of my neck too, please." She turned her head in the opposite direction so as to encourage him, raising her eyebrows and waiting patiently for the moment that she felt his mouth on her skin once more.

"Not- a- problem," Caleb responded, punctuating each word with a kiss as his lips made their way down her neck once again, this time on the opposite side. As before, he pulled the material of her oversized shirt back to expose her collar bone, though unlike the last time, he noticed a small circular shaped scar peeking over her shoulder – a scar that he had seen many times before in many different places on her body, and that he hated more than anything in the world. Not because of the way that they looked; he still thought that his girlfriend was as beautiful as ever, the scars could never change the way that he thought about her. What he hated was how they got there, the thought that the woman that he loved had been put through that much pain and suffering. Without thinking, he moved his lips to press against the sensitive, scarred skin, where they lingered for a few moments.

Sensing the fact that his lips had made a detour, Hanna opened her eyes and turned her head to look down at Caleb, instantly catching on to what he was doing. She quickly averted her gaze, choosing to look away from him as she felt her eyes begin to fill with tears, and her heart begin to beat inadvertently faster.

Immediately noticing the thumping of her heart against his chest and her increasingly shallow breaths, Caleb pulled his lips away from her skin so that he could lift his head up to look into her eyes, which to his dismay were now scrunched closed. "Hey," He soothed, reaching one hand out to cup her cheek as his other arm remained securely wrapped around her waist, "It's ok."

Hanna took a deep breath in in response, breathing out audibly through her nose after a few seconds.

"No amount of scars could ever make you less perfect in my eyes," He mumbled, leaning his head down so that his lips pressed against the shell of her ear, "I promise."

He felt her heart rate begin to slow a little as he brought his head back up to see that her eyes were now open, though filled with fat tears that threatened to spill down her face. A single tear rolled down her left cheek as she opened her mouth to speak, her voice soft and full of emotion, "I know." She began to nod as she wiped the tear from her cheek and her voice gained a little strength, "I know, it's just the-"

"The memories, I know," He soothed, remembering their previous conversations from the numerous occasions over the past few weeks during which situations like this had arisen. One day, he was sure that Hanna would get to a place where she could accept the scars as a part of herself, but for now she was sent into emotional turmoil whenever Caleb so much as made contact with them. He trailed his fingers back down to the scar as he rubbed small circles over it, hoping to get her used to the idea that he would love her just the same even if her body was completely covered in the scars. "But I promise, we are gonna replace every awful, horrible, undeserved memory in that beautiful mind of yours with wonderful new ones," He finished, wiping a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

Hanna's face broke out into a bright smile, and more of the tears that had been forming a sheen over her eyes fell in quick succession over her cheeks. "I think I'd like that."

Caleb reciprocated her smile, "You ok?" He asked genuinely, his voice soft and low.

Hanna nodded twice, "I will be." Her hands went to his cheeks, her legs wrapping tighter around his waist as she allowed herself just to stare at his features for a moment. Her eyes connected with the long, faded scar across his forehead – Caleb had told her the heart-breaking story of how he had obtained it many times before, and every single time she wished that she could have been in that foster home on that day to stop it from happening. She only hoped that he felt that way about her scars, too. "How come yours makes you look even more handsome, but mine make me look so ugly," She pouted as Caleb locked his arms around her waist, and she her fingers up to trace along the length of his scar.

"I hate it," He shook his head, immediately knowing what she was referring to, "I think it looks awful."

"Well I don't think so," She assured him, offering him a small smile.

"Just like I don't think that yours look awful," He soothed; she could tell from his tone that he was being serious, that he really didn't think of her any differently because of them.

Hanna looked down at her lap, "Mine are just so… obvious," She concluded, "I don't think I'll ever feel beautiful again." She felt dramatic saying the words out loud, but it was what she had been thinking for weeks on end now. For someone who had so many issues with their body confidence growing up, having her skin littered with scars – not to mention the fact that they were the result of torture – really wasn't what she needed.

Caleb swore that he could feel his heart break at her words; after all that she had been through, Hanna deserved to feel beautiful in her own skin more than anyone else that he knew. He lifted her head back up by placing his index underneath her chin, and their eyes connected immediately, both pairs full of emotion. Not breaking their eye contact, Caleb moved his hands to the top of her shirt and slowly began to unbutton it, gently sliding the material from her shoulders once he had finished. Despite the number of times that Caleb had seen her like this before, she blushed a little as her naked body was revealed to him, but her embarrassment soon faded when she saw the look of sheer admiration on her boyfriend's face.

"So beautiful, so, so beautiful," He murmured, pressing his lips back against the scar on her shoulder, making Hanna shiver involuntarily. His hands found their way to her back, gently trailing along each and every one of the scars that he had memorised the pattern of over the last couple of weeks. Hanna breathed steadily against him – his touch was making her feel cathartic, reassuring her that maybe, finally, everything could be ok.

"I love you so much," He mumbled against her shoulder, still stroking the scarred skin of her back.

"I love you too," She whispered in response, allowing herself to close her eyes as she gave into his touch, "Before I met you, I never used to think that it was possible to love somebody this much." She brought her head back to look at him once again; both of them had a delicate film of tears over their eyes as their lips pressed against one another's for the thousandth time, moving completely in sync, love and passion and comfort flooding their senses with every slow, drawn-out motion.

Hanna slid herself even closer to Caleb as their kiss became more intense, his hands coming to rest on her waist as his thumbs grazed the underside of her breasts. They pulled away from the kiss, both breathing heavily, and she trailed a hand down the expanse of his chest, hooking a finger over the waist band of his boxers before looking up into his eyes for permission. He bit his lip and nodded before she pulled then down torturously slowly, moving his hands further upwards to cup her breasts as she did so. Hanna sighed, pushing her lips back onto his once she had pulled his boxers far enough down his legs, memorising the feeling of their most intimate parts pressing against each other once again as she settled onto his lap. She would never, could never, get tired of it.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, and I don't ever want to find out," She mumbled against his lips as she felt their bodies become one, just like all those times before.

* * *

 **Well there we go – told ya it was plotless fluff! Reviews are appreciated as always x**


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